§12,13. IGNORANCE OF COMMITTEES. 189 



has real talent, it is not impossible that the committee assem- 

 bled to pronounce upon it may be incapable of forming an 

 opinion on the matter. Thus it happened that an architect of 

 merit, when requested to give a design for a certain building, 

 was obliged to bow to the decision of an ignorant committee, 

 because they had a preconceived notion that a particular fea- 

 ture was required for every large edifice. Nothing would 

 persuade those worthies that a grand front could exist without 

 a pediment with figures in the tympanum, whether it was 

 Gothic, Elizabethan, or of any other style. In vain the archi- 

 tect represented that in the particular style he had chosen for 

 the building a pediment would be a monstrosity ; that build- 

 ings with large roofs like the Tuileries, or the town-halls of 

 Flanders, had no place for a pediment ; and to have both roof 

 at the top and gable beneath it would be inconsistent. It 

 was useless : they would not pay their money without one, 

 and it was to be introduced somehow in the most conspicuous 

 position. And thus the reputation of an architect had to 

 suffer for the caprice of ignorant people; whose paradox 

 amounted to this, that a man ought to appear with one hat 

 below his chin and another on his head. 



And ivho was the committee ? or rvho is any committee ? 

 It has been said of committees, as of other boards, that they 

 "have no consciences." It may be said with equal j ustice, 

 that they have no individuality ; for when a decision is come 

 to by a committee, who has decided? no one knows, and no 

 one is responsible for it. The principle is an unsound one. 

 There is no objection to a committee of consultation; but 

 every decision ought to be pronounced by one person of sound 

 judgment, who should be, and feel that he was, responsible; 

 and any one who knew that he would have to answer for a 

 hasty or improper opinion would take care to obtain and 

 follow the best advice, which too need not necessarily be con- 

 fined to that of his official coadjutors. Make a man respou- 



